Latest news with #CommissionOfInquiry
The Australian
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Australian
David Crisafulli defends CFMEU inquiry boss's LNP links amid bias claims
Queensland Premier David Crisafulli has dodged questions about the appointment of a LNP donor and former Liberal Party member, Stuart Wood KC, to lead the Commission of Inquiry into the CFMEU. Concerns about the impartiality of the Victorian barrister have been raised in the days since he was announced as the commissioner of the newly formed inquiry, which has been tasked with investigating the culture of violence and intimidation within the union's Queensland division, and uncovering any potential links to criminal underworld or activity. Mr Crisafulli said critics of the Mr Wood's appointment were Labor-aligned and motivated by desire to discredit the inquiry. 'He is incredibly well regarded,' Mr Crisafulli said. 'Is there anyone who has found that he is not one of the most pre-eminent KCs (Kings Counsels) involved in industrial relations? 'We chose someone because of his reputation in the IR space, and that reputation has been well and truly endorsed by anyone who has looked at it, who don't have links to the Labor Party. 'I'm sorry, I want to change the culture on building sites so that people can feel safe, productivity can return.' Mr Wood is a well-known conservative who was once a member of the Victorian Liberal Party. Records from the Electoral Commission of Queensland show Mr Wood donated $1500 to the LNP in 2023. Mr Crisafulli refused to say whether Mr Wood had a personal relationship with his deputy, Jarrod Bleijie. When Mr Bleijie announced last Friday that the barrister would lead the 12-month inquiry, he reiterated that Mr Wood would be bound by law to conduct the probe 'independently, impartially and fairly'. Queensland Attorney-General Deb Frecklington would not say whether she was aware of Mr Wood's previous political ties upon making the appointment, and fell short of saying whether a fulsome recruitment process had been undertaken or if he had been headhunted for the position. Ms Frecklington said there was 'nothing wrong' with his former membership status. 'People are members of all parties, from time to time,' she said. 'There is nothing wrong with Mr Wood being a former member of the Liberal Party of another state altogether.' Queensland Council of Unions general secretary Jacqueline King said Mr Wood's appoint seemed to lack due process. CFMEU inquiry boss an LNP donor Mackenzie Scott is a property and general news reporter based in Brisbane. Prior to joining The Australian in 2018, she was the editorial coordinator at NewsMediaWorks, covering media and publishing, and editor at travel and lifestyle website Xplore Sydney. Politics Business leader Warwick Smith has warned Anthony Albanese to hasten slowly with any reforms agreed upon at the upcoming economic roundtable, amid warring unions and corporate groups. Politics The owners of some of Australia's biggest transport companies say Labor should drop its unrealised capital gains tax plan, with some considering liquidating part of their self-managed super funds.
ABC News
23-07-2025
- ABC News
Commission of inquiry into child safety in Queensland will focus on children leaving care
A woman who alleges she was abused while in the care of the Queensland government has called for significant changes to the child safety system. It comes as a powerful commission of inquiry into Queensland's child safety sector held its first public hearing on Wednesday, promising to review the hundreds of children reported missing from placements. Georgie Djuricic entered the residential care system at seven years old. She she was placed in an emergency facility with several teenage boys and alleged she was abused over a year and half. "A boy had severely bashed me to the point where, it had been so dangerous for me to live there anymore, they had to put me in a hotel for two weeks," she said. "I was moved into another resi immediately because they had too many cases of me having been hurt too much in that house." The now 19-year-old Aboriginal woman went to four different out-of-home placements over a decade and battled mental health and behavioural issues. She wants young people's voices to be heard as part of the 18-month inquiry. Ms Djuricic now works as a Youth Advocate for CREATE Foundation and said the system was broken. "If you wouldn't treat your children like that, why are you treating us like that?" she said. "The reality is the system has not really changed in the past 40 years. "We deserve to be heard, we're the ones that have been hurt." Queensland's Commission of Inquiry into Child Safety held its first hearing on Wednesday, led by former Federal Court Judge Paul Anastassiou KC. Reports of almost 800 children "self-placing" will be reviewed as part of the inquiry's broad remit, the commissioner said. "Self-placing" refers to children leaving a child safety placement for any reason, including to visit family or friends. However, advocates worry children who self-place may also be exposed to unsafe or dangerous situations. Government figures showed the number of children self-placing had grown to 780 in March 2025 – a figure the state's child safety minister said was unacceptable. "Allowing one vulnerable child to self-place in Queensland is unacceptable to me, let alone 780 young people," Minister Amanda Camm said in a statement. "That's why I have ordered a full audit of the kids in care who are self-placing, to understand how the current system can be improved." Queensland has the most children in residential care in the country, with the state paying more than $1 billion for their care. In this system, children live in group homes which are staffed by youth workers. Senior Counsel Assisting Robyn Sweet KC said residential care was designed for children over 12 years old. She said despite this, one in three children in these homes in Queensland is under 12. "This is a phenomenon unique to Queensland, with no other state experiencing this explosion of children in residential care," she said. "There are scores of children under the age of five … There are even reports of infants placed in residential care." The commissioner said "the paramount aim of this inquiry" was to "improve the lives of and outcomes for these children and young people". "If that aim is achieved … it will benefit not only these children, but all of the community of Queensland." He said "the skies" over the department had been "blackened" by a "fog of notices" for information, with the commission legally empowered to compel witnesses and force organisations to produce documents. The inquiry's broad terms of reference also include reforming the residential care system, reviewing the decline of foster care, child placement breakdowns, the resourcing of workers and "the ministerial accountability of the child safety system". Following an ABC investigation, the commissioner said the inquiry will prioritise reviewing the complaints system for carers and accelerate submissions on that subject. Reporting by the ABC in July revealed the violence and chaos inside some residential care homes, with workers saying they feared reprisals for speaking out. More than 60 submissions by foster carers, former child safety workers, academics and parents of children in care have already been received by the inquiry. Tom Allsop, chief executive officer of PeakCare, said he hoped the inquiry would bring significant change. "We know we sit at a moment in time where we can set up a system that Queensland deserves when it comes to supporting children," he said. "We know we need this inquiry to shine a light on parts of this service system … that aren't operating how we need." The inquiry will deliver a final report to the Queensland government by November 30, 2026.
Arab News
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
UN-backed experts focusing on Palestinian rights quit
GENEVA: A team of three independent experts working for the UN's top human rights body with a focus on Israel and Palestinian areas say they are resigning, citing personal reasons and a need for change, in the panel's first such group resignation. The resignations, announced Monday by the UN-backed Human Rights Council that set up the team, come as violence continues in Palestinian areas with few signs of letup in the Israeli military campaign against Hamas and other militants behind the Oct. 7 attacks. The Israeli government has repeatedly criticized the panel of experts, known as the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, and denied their repeated requests to travel to the region or otherwise cooperate with the team. Council spokesman Pascal Sim said the move marked the first joint resignations of Commission of Inquiry members since the council was founded in 2006. The team said in a statement that the resignations had 'absolutely nothing to do with any external event or pressure.' Navi Pillay, 83, a former UN human rights chief who has led the commission for the last four years, said in a letter to the council president that she was resigning effective Nov. 3 because of 'age, medical issues and the weight of several other commitments.'
Asharq Al-Awsat
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
UN-backed Team Focusing on Human Rights in Palestinian Areas Announce Resignations
A team of three independent experts working for the UN's top human rights body with a focus on Israel and Palestinian areas say they are resigning, citing personal reasons and a need for change, in the panel's first such group resignation. The resignations, announced Monday by the UN-backed Human Rights Council that set up the team, come as violence continues in Palestinian areas with few signs of letup in the Israeli military campaign against Hamas and other militants behind the Oct. 7 attacks. The Israeli government has repeatedly criticized the panel of experts, known as the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, and denied their repeated requests to travel to the region or otherwise cooperate with the team, The AP news reported. Council spokesman Pascal Sim said the move marked the first joint resignations of Commission of Inquiry members since the council was founded in 2006. The team said in a statement that the resignations had 'absolutely nothing to do with any external event or pressure," while also saying they provided a good opportunity to reconstitute the panel. Navi Pillay, 83, a former UN human rights chief who has led the commission for the last four years, said in a letter to the council president that she was resigning effective Nov. 3 because of 'age, medical issues and the weight of several other commitments.' In an interview, Pillay rejected accusations from critics who accused her of antisemitism or turning a blind eye to the Hamas attacks. She recalled how she worked closely with some Jewish lawyers in the fight against apartheid in her native South Africa and was invited to Israel as the UN rights chief from 2008 to 2014. "Name-calling is not affecting me in any way,' she said by phone. 'We have striven to remain independent. That's what we are. We're an independent panel. We don't take sides ... We look at the evidence and see the direction it's taking us.' 'People who accuse us of being anti-Semitic ... they twist the facts, they invent facts, falsify facts. I would like to see them challenge the report: Which of the facts that we have set out are incorrect?' she said. Her commission condemned the Oct. 7 attacks three days afterward in a news release that said at the time that reports "that armed groups from Gaza have gunned down hundreds of unarmed civilians are abhorrent and cannot be tolerated. Taking civilian hostages and using civilians as human shields are war crimes.' She expressed regret that Israel didn't allow the commission access to Israel or Palestinian areas, saying "I feel that's an injustice to Israeli Jews because we're not taking on board their opinion or what they're saying.' Pillay said she had been recently diagnosed with low platelet count and her condition has restricted her ability to travel. Her team said it wanted to give the rights council's president — currently Ambassador Jürg Lauber of Switzerland — the ability to pick new members. Team member Chris Sidoti said Pillay's retirement marked 'an appropriate time to re-constitute the commission.' The third member, Miloon Kothari, did not provide his reasons in a letter announcing his resignation effective 0ct. 31. Neither the independent experts nor the council have any power over countries, but aim to spotlight rights abuses and collect information about suspected perpetrators that could be used by the International Criminal Court or other courts focusing on international justice. The letters were sent to the council president last week but only became public Monday. Last week, the US government announced sanctions against another independent expert mandated by the council, Francesca Albanese, who has also focused on Israel and the Palestinians. Albanese has accused Israel of genocide against the Palestinians, a claim Israel has denied. Albanese said in an interview last week with The Associated Press that she was shocked by the US decision. She has not resigned.
The National
15-07-2025
- Politics
- The National
Former UN rights chief Navi Pillay quits Israel-Palestine probe
Navi Pillay, the former UN human rights chief who has headed the world body's Commission of Inquiry into the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel since 2021, has resigned. Ms Pillay, a South African jurist, said in a letter made public on Monday that her resignation, effective on November 3, was due to 'age, medical issues and the weight of several other commitments'. Two other team experts, Chris Sidoti of Australia and Miloon Kothari of India, also stepped down. Their resignation letters, addressed to the president of the Human Rights Council, were sent last week. The resignation of the three-member panel comes amid mounting political pressure, including recent US sanctions imposed by President Donald Trump 's administration on Francesca Albanese, a Human Rights Council-appointed expert who has publicly condemned Israeli military actions in Gaza. Ms Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, called on July 9 for an arms embargo and the severing of trade ties with Israel, accusing it of conducting a 'genocidal campaign' in Gaza. Israel has refused to co-operate with the commission, denying its members entry and repeatedly rejecting their findings as biased. The Commission of Inquiry, established by the UN Human Rights Council in 2021, has no prosecutorial powers but is tasked with documenting abuses and preserving evidence that could be used by international judicial bodies such as the International Criminal Court.
